43 She left Carrie and went downstairs and walked in the garden until it \vas time to go on duty She went up and down the gravel paths and along by the river, but she could not over- come the excitement that lately dis- turbed her so, the sensation of shameful pleasure. By the river's edge, she came upon Silcox, who had taken up fishing in his spare time-a useful excuse for avoiding EdIth's company. He stood on the bank, watching the line where It entered the water, and hardly turned his head as Edith approached him. "\\There does he- where does Julian go to in the holidays " she asked. "He goes to relatives," Silcox an- swered She knew that she was Interrupting hIm and that she must move on. As she dId, he heard her murmuring anÀiousl}, "I do so hope they're k . d " In . He turned his head quickly and looked after her, but she had gone mooning back across thè lawn. The expression of astonishment stayed on his face for a long time after that, and when she took up her position in the dining room hefore lunch he looked at her with con- cern, but she was her usual forbiddIng and ef- ficIent self again. their appetites with their parents. "They're all the same at that age," she would say. "I knnw." I t was unlike her to chat with the customers and quite against Silcox's code. "'Then he commented disdainfully upon her unusual behavior, she seemed scarcely to listen to his words The next Sunday, serving a double portion of Ice cream to a boy, she looked across at his mother and sl11iled. "I've got a son my- self, Madam," she said "I know." Silcox, having overheard this, was too enraged to settle down to his fishing that afternoon. He looked for Edith and found her in the bedroom writing a letter to her sister "It was a mistake-this about the boy," he said, taking up the photograph and glaring at it. "You have not the right touch in such matters. y;>" ou carry the deceptIon to excess. ì- ou go too far." "Too far?" she said brightly, but busy writing "Our position is established. I think the little flourishes I thought up had theIr result." "But they were all your little flour- ishes," she said, looking up at him. "ìYou didn't let me think of any, did ..." you: He stared back at her, and soon her eyes flickered and she returned to her writing. "There won't be any more," he saId. "From me or from you. Or any more discussion of our affairs, do you under- stand Carrie in here every morning gossiping, you chattering to customers, telling them such a pack of lies-as if it were all true, and as if they could possihl) he interested You know as well as I do how unprofessional it is. I should never have credited it uf you. Even when we were at the dreadful place at Paignton you conducted yourself with more dig- . " nlty. "I don't see the harm," she said lnildly. "And I don't see the necessity. It's courting danger, for one thing- to get so involved. \Ve'll keep our affaIrs to ourselves or else we'l1 find trouble ahead." "\\That time does the post go?" "Tithout readIng her letter through, she pushed it into an envelope. Goodness knows what she has WrItten, he thought. A mercy her sister was far away in L\.ustralia. The photograph- the subject of their con- tention-he pushed aside, as if he would ha ve liked to be rid of . " y d ' It. ou on t seem to be paYIng much atten- tion," he said. "I 0nly warn you that you'd better. Unless you hope to make laughingstocks of both of us." Before she addressed the envelope, she looked gravely at him for a moment, thinking that perhaps the worst thing that could happen to him, the thing he had al ways dreaded most, was to be laughed at, to \ Jffv (: ,. < I) >\, ltl <,t- \\Y1 .1j!,J& \ . .:> {' . ii/h \ 1 >;; r, t..Ú\ A 4- :t.tl '- "' .. ---- t1'? n Ih, '2.. ' L J 1 /"t:? j Ii, tI , " ø " 1.. '\ ^ ( Ir- r t , ,< . "* ,,:! ,, ' " D ON'T we ever go to see him?" she asked a few days later "\V on't they think us strange not going? " "\\That we do In our free time is no concern of theIrs," he said. "I only thought they'd think it strange." He isn't real, none of it is true, she now con- stantly reminded her- self, for sometimes her feelings of guilt about that abandoned boy grew too acute. Occasionally, on Sunday outings from school, boys were brought by their parents to have lunch at the ho- tel, and Edith found herself fussing over them, giving them huge helpings, discussing /" THE EA VESDR.OPPER. "'Look) Mr Benson,' 1 said) 'I understood 1 was hzred as a secretary.'))